How to know if a business is dead vs just need more marketing?
If your idea is bad you won't have many users. If your idea does solve a problem and has some demand but you're lacking on marketing, you won't have many users as well. Unless you invented a pill that cures cancer, your product will not "sell itself".
It's normal for even a good idea to take months to get the first few users. However, I don't want to be spending months promoting a dead idea instead of working on something else. Of course, I also don't want to neglect the good ideas.
Basically, if my MVP isn't getting users what do I do?
Customer Engagement: If there may be little to no engagement from clients despite advertising efforts, it ought to be a signal of deeper problems inside the business.
Financial Performance: Analyze the economic fitness of the business. If there is a regular decline in income or profitability notwithstanding advertising initiatives, it can also point out underlying problems.
Market Research: Conduct a thorough market lookup to recognize if there may be a demand for the product or service. A lack of demand may indicate that the enterprise mannequin wants reevaluation.
Customer Feedback: Listen to what clients are saying. If there are ordinary complaints or bad remarks about the product or service, it would possibly sign that adjustments are wanted in past advertising efforts.
Competitive Analysis: Assess how the commercial enterprise is performing in contrast to competitors. If rivals are thriving whilst the enterprise struggles, it may additionally require more than simply advertising to continue to be competitive.
Analyse the user feedback closely and check whether they are confused by the value proposition or is it the lack of awareness.
You can try doing what Brian Chesky did and try to target a 100 users (could be just 50, or 10, depending on the case) who will love your product: https://twitter.com/StartupArchive_/status/1737446769519124584
You will get a much clearer answer by the feedback of this handful of people (or the failure of finding them in the first place) than if you try to get a lot of people to kinda use your product.
I just hope that your runway allows for the patience to find these folks and and build their lovable product.
I switched from thinking “ I have a product business idea and I need to figure out marketing for it” to “my business idea consists of product / service & marketing”.
If you realise that your marketing is an integral part of your business you will start treating the whole process of kickstarting your business differently.
What do you do if your product doesn’t solve the problem you target? You collect feedback and twist the product until either it works or you realise it’s not working and pivot. That’s limited by your time and budget.
With marketing it’s same. You try a marketing channel/approach and you experiment with it until either your economics start working or you pivot. Same limitations apply.
One of the things I have learned over the years is there is probably no product which the "entire world" needs, even Google search :)
So the first thing to do would be to segment potential users into categories and prioritise them based on the "pain" they are experiencing with a problem for which your product is the solution. It is likely users would already be doing something about it manually. So your product would be placed to improve the experience. Finding the right segment for the MVP is the discovery IMHO.
For products in new problems, I will look at the Technology Adoption Lifecycle and find the folks who are already talking about the problem and will be interested in collaborating for a solution. This would probably involve attending conferences, engaging in communities related to the problem space.
Marketing is essential no matter what.
If you have competition (i.e. there is a already a market) then most likely you need good marketing and may be your product a differentiating factor. If you are trying to create a new market then situation is more nuanced.
All the best!
It's hard to give any useful feedback based on the limited amount of information you've provided. What you need to do is take a look at the data that you have to understand where the issue lies.
If you have a lot of traffic but no conversions, either the traffic is not qualified or you need to optimize for conversions.
If it's a case of not getting enough traffic, it could be your promotional efforts that are the issue and not the product itself.
Marketing reduces kinetic friction - it doesn't break static friction.
In other words, if you're already growing (good) marketing will make you grow faster. If you don't have any users / aren't growing marketing may give you a small bump but you won't see your numbers take off. Organic growth is what makes products take off
Honestly if you have a working MVP it does not take months to get users. It takes a week at most unless you have no marketing / lead gen skills and nobody with those skills on your team.
I seen startups taking 6 months and barely getting any traction and the reason is that they don't really have a MVP, they have a product that is not a good product-market-fit.
Basically their product doesn't solve a meaningful problem as such there's no demand and when shown people don't feel interest.
A good product-market-fit causes a "WOW" effect. If people you speak with aren't like WOW that's amazing, you haven't hit product-market-fit. Or you're talking to the wrong people but that's a different story lol. :D
Figuring out if your biz needs a marketing boost or if the idea's a dud is tricky. Here’s my two cents:
Sometimes it’s not about working harder but smarter. Good luck!
I'd suggest trying a targeted ad strategy to quickly identify your most responsive audience. By creating varied ads tailored to different demographics or interest groups, you can effectively test the waters and see who's really engaging with your product. This method not only helps in failing faster but also in pinpointing which segments are a miss and which ones are a hit. It's a practical way to gather valuable insights and refine your focus, ensuring you're directing your efforts and resources towards the audience that resonates most with your offering. This approach accelerates the learning process, allowing you to adapt and optimize your marketing strategy with data-driven confidence.
Talk to potential customers (or even better Free trial customers that haven't converted). Don't ask them about if they like the product but try to deduce if they have the problem you're trying to solve. If they are free trials, ask them about what's working and what's not. What would it take them to convert to a paid user?
It is inevitable to dedicate some months to discover if it is a good idea! Apart from ads, which don't give a clear picture, content marketing is the medium to discover the value of the product.
After all, marketing is everything. Even a not useful product can be best selling if it becomes a trend..
but how do you identify that your business is good or not, users are not visiting on your website, just because of SEO or technical issue or lack of marketing, its does not mean that business is not good
If the project is a passion you can create the market. If you are looking for a signal that your current product market strategy isn't working I think you have proof.
The few lucky times I've hit on something you can see it immediately then you direct your energy to it and watch it explode.
I've also had passion projects that took a year or more before it took off. If I wasn't passionate I would have moved on.
Improve Your Marketing: If you’re confident in your MVP, focus on refining your marketing strategy. This could include PPC campaigns, content marketing, or reaching out to influencers within your target market.
Seek Feedback: Don’t hesitate to reach out to subject matter experts or potential investors for their insights. Their feedback can be crucial in refining your product and strategy.
Pivot if Necessary: If despite all efforts, the MVP is not gaining traction, consider pivoting. This might mean changing your product, target audience, or even the problem you’re solving.
Remember, an MVP is not just about building a product; it’s about learning from the market and iterating quickly.
I think there is no answer in general to this question. It's really hard to give you specific advice because you haven't mentioned what you've attempted for marketing so far. What kind of product do you have? What marketing have you attempted? What user testing have you done?
Ah, that's a good question. Telling a business that's flatlining from one that just needs a marketing boost can be tricky. Here's a way to think about it:
Imagine a store. Lots of folks coming in, browsing, and maybe a few leaving empty-handed, that's normal.
But if the store is dusty, shelves half-bare, and crickets are chirping instead of customers, that's a different story.
For the struggling business: It might be crickets online too. Their social media isn't updated, their website looks like it's from 1999, and there's no buzz about them anywhere.
For the under-marketed business: Their online presence might be weak, but there are still traces of life.
Maybe they have a Facebook page they haven't touched in a while, but positive reviews from a year ago. Or their website is basic, but the products themselves are interesting.
Another way to look at it is sales conversations: A business on its last legs might not even have the staff to answer the phone.
If you do get a hold of someone, they might seem stressed or disinterested.
On the other hand, a business that just needs more marketing might have friendly staff, but they might not be very good at explaining what makes their product special.
Ultimately, it's about a sense of energy. A struggling business feels like a deflated balloon, while a business that just needs a marketing boost is more like a lightbulb that's turned off - it just needs the right switch flicked.
I'm wondering about the same question. There is this popular "start with your friends and family" advice, but I found that it doesn't work if your friends and family is not your audience.